Suwarrow is known to the cruising community as where Tom
Neale chose to isolate himself for 25 years - from 1952 till 1977. He left
the island a few times during that span of years, and he published a book titled
An Island to Oneself in 1966 in which he chronicles his life on Suwarrow. He welcomed visiting
cruisers to 'his' island, and that tradition continues.

Anchorage Island, Suwarrow

Suwarrow consists of many small islets on a barrier reef
enclosing a large lagoon. Although the lagoon is large, there is only one
small anchorage off the aptly named Anchorage Island.

Suwarrow is uninhabited other than two caretakers whom are
there for six months out of the year - during cruising season. In recent
years, one of those caretakers was Papa John, and he earned a reputation as a
warm and friendly host. We were told that Papa John would not return this
year, and a new pair of caretakers - John and Vero - would be there. We
were disappointed that we would not get to meet Papa John, but the welcome we
experienced from John and Vero eliminated any prior disappointment.

John and Vero

John and Vero live above an open-air structure in which
they regularly have barbecues for arriving and departing boats. The usual
fare is coconut crabs, lagoon-caught fish, coconut pancakes, rice, and drinking
coconuts. Guests may or may not contribute food. Some of the fish is
fried, and some is baked over a fire of coconut husks. It is always
delicious.

Suwarrow is a bird sanctuary, and John and Vero took us to
one of the islands (Gull Island) where the frigates and sooty terns nest.
It was an amazing sight! Countless thousands of birds were nesting on any
open space. Many eggs were in nests, and many more were on the ground.
The air was thick with birds.

They also took us to Eighth Island to hunt coconut crabs.
Small crabs were easy to find, but the larger ones that we took to eat were a
bit more stealth. But we found plenty of them over an hour or two of
hunting.

As we were crossing the lagoon to return to Anchorage
Island, Vero threw out a small fishing lure. Within about two minutes, she
landed an 18" rainbow runner. Within the next ten minutes, she landed
another four of that size. She caught another two that made it to the boat
but got away. Then we saw a blacktip shark - probably about 6' - hit one
that was on the line. Although we enjoy watching sharks, we are respectful
of their potential ferocity when feeding, and it was an awesome sight to see
this one hit the rainbow runner. Extremely powerful animals!

birds everywhere!

The south side of the lagoon has more sharks than any
other area, and the sharks are known to be a bit more aggressive there.
John tells all visitors of that, and he advises against diving or spear fishing
there, so we were surprised to hear that a french couple went spear fishing on
the south reef. They had a fish speared, and they had an unwanted close
encounter with a big shark there. Fortunately they got away with just a
big scare.

With our combined awe and respect for sharks, we felt
comfortable diving in the lagoon, but we did not dive the south reef.
Also, our idea of shooting fish is with our cameras rather than spears.
Although we saw a few sharks, they were not interested in us.

coconut crab

Bud shot primarily fish shots. We saw many familiar
fish, and we also found a few that we had not previously seen. He got some
nice shots of a few of them. Nita shot clams. The reef is nearly
covered with giant clams (which are not necessarily giant in size), and their
mantles are of amazing colors - colors that are more vibrant than one would
expect in nature. Nice diving.

When we arrived Suwarrow, there was one boat in the
lagoon. During our stay, there were as many as ten boats at one time!
This was cause for many "welcome" and "good bye" barbecues, and we did lots of
socializing.

a beautiful butterfly fish

We met two brothers, Mark and Dan, traveling on a
three-year-old 47' Nordhaven that was really quite beautiful. Neither of
us had ever been aboard a boat like that, so we enjoyed seeing their boat.
We also enjoyed their pleasant company, and we hope to cross their path again
later this year in Tonga.

We also met Randy Repass - the founder of West Marine -
and his lovely family. Randy recently built a 66' cat-rigged boat designed by Tom Wylie that Randy
describes as a "concept boat". The boat is the culmination of many
concepts from many people, so he named it Convergence. Touring Convergence
was a real treat - a boat outfitted with a seemingly unlimited budget. We
both left there with gear envy. There are a few pages devoted to Convergence in the West Marine catalog, and you can also read more about her at www.westmarine.com/convergence.

giant clam

Suwarrow is also where we met our friends Don and Gwen on
Tackless II. They too are divers, and we discovered that we have a lot in
common. We made fast and good friends, and we look forward to spending
lots more time together this season.

But after a few weeks, it was time to move on. We
had been almost five months without a grocery store, and we were running out of
many basics. And we ran out of home brew. We looked forward to American Samoa where we could get our
accumulated mail, brew a batch of beer, and provisions would be available in abundance. Don and
Gwen on Tackless II were also headed for American Samoa, so we left within a few
hours of each other with plans to stay in contact during the passage and see
each other again in Pago Pago.